The Winter Olympics will open in Vancouver...

The sports world is waiting in suspense. Overly ambitious expectations are bound to bring bitter disappointment; a wise approach to the Games would help one take any result with reserve.

The Russian ice hockey team is probably facing the biggest challenge, as are the biathlon team, speed skater Ivan Skobrev and figure skater Yevgeny Plushchenko. Russians expect them to win no less than gold, and any other result will be an enormous blow.

The hockey team, which has not won an Olympic medal since 1992 (although in Albertville it played without a national flag or an anthem, as a CIS team), was praised as an indisputable prize-winner and even a candidate for the gold. This is not the best starting position. The Vancouver games will be the fourth attended by the best NHL teams. The Czech team was considered a clear front-runner before the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, after it had won three world championships in a row. But the team dropped out without even making it into

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